Coral Sunset Geranium

Coral Sunset Geranium
Pelargonium x domesticum ‘Coral Sunset’
(pe-lar-GO-nee-um) (doh-MESS-tik-um)
Synonyms: Regal Pelargonium, Martha Washington Geranium

We went to Stonecrop Gardens yesterday and one of the highlights (for me) was the Geranium collection. It is an amazing garden and I would highly recommend it for touring. To me it wasn’t like a fancy botanical garden more like the sign says a “plant enthusiast garden”. The amount of different and strange plants they had was huge and they were for the most part set up informally.

While I am not trying to make excuses the light was really bad yesterday. It was pretty much dark out (like a murky twilight) and spitting rain on and off. Even with all that I did manage to get a few good flower pictures, which will be posted later in the week. This picture of the Sumac berries was taken with Ruby Tuesday in mind. I like certain types of Sumac in the garden. They aren’t all bad.


Here is a Zinnia I saw a few weeks ago and keep neglecting to post. It goes with Ruby Tuesday so here it is. The big patch of this Zinnia must have been grown from seed as there were some nice variations in the flowers.


Zinnia 'Swizzle Cherry and Ivory'
(ZIN-ya)

See more Ruby Tuesday at Work of the Poet.

Green Threadleaf Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum var. dissectum 'Viridis')

Green Threadleaf Japanese Maple
Acer palmatum var. dissectum 'Viridis'

I wanted to get a few fall foliage pictures and these are what I ended up with. I can keep dreaming of taking those gorgeous landscape shots with all the trees on fire. I can’t even find the right place to try and take a shot like that and if I did I probably wouldn’t be able to capture it. The first shot is a Green Japanese Maple. I like the green ones especially since they can grow in shade pretty well. This tree has had its ups and downs over the years. It had an inexplicable stretch were the bark peeled off the top of the branches and it really thinned out. On one of the gardening forums I am member of this same cultivar did the same thing so I was wondering if it was an incompatible graft or as someone else suggested some sort of sunburn. Anyway it came back from that and unless you look closely you can’t even see any damage. It puts on quite a show in the fall and the winter outline is nice. I think when you use the scientific name for this tree you it is okay to drop the var. dissectum.


This second shot is Sumac. I am not sure which one but it is not the species that grows on the side of the road and in waste lots. It is a handsome garden plant that gets this great red. It also gets hairy orangey-red seeds that look nice. This is not Poison Sumac!


I wanted to post this picture although I could have used a bit more depth of field (a lot more, actually). It is a Maple I had never seen before called Red Vein Maple (Acer rufinerve). It is also known as Honshu Maple and Melon Skin Maple. It is a small tree that is a snakebark type. The fall color was outstanding on the few leaves that were left on the plant. I saw this at the local nursery yesterday and I am kicking myself for not buying it. I guess I could go back but it is really out of the way. I should know better than to hesitate or waffle on something like that. If you see a plant you like and it is hard to get and it is priced fairly reasonably then you got to go for it right then. The Maple was 40% off to top it all off.


This plant is Fothergilla major or Large Fothergilla. It is also known as Witch-alder. It is a lovely plant that has unique petalless flowers and as you can see great fall color. Here is a link to one of my favorite plant sites with more information on Fothergilla:

floridata.com

I like using Fothergilla in moist areas, part shade and woodland gardens. It looks great in all of them.


Finally I saw a funny bumper sticker on the way home yesterday it said:
“Please God help me be the person my dog thinks I am.”
How perfect. So I am posting a picture of one of my dogs, Ruby Tuesday Slippers. I wanted to call her Ruby Tuesday but thought that a reference to the slippers in the Wizard of Oz was nice to have. She is a three-year old Border Collie mix that weighs about 60 lbs. She is quite a dog and I know I think the world of her and judging by the way she acts when I get home she does the same about me. I just hope I can live up to her thoughts. I also have a 12-year old Siberian Husky named after the Hawaiian Island, Molokai. She is a lot different than Ruby but they are the best of friends.

Fragrant Sumac (Rhus aromatica)

Fragrant Sumac
Rhus aromatica
(roos) (ar-oh-MAT-ih-kuh)

This was taken several weeks ago. My patch of Fragrant Sumac keeps growing and I keep cutting it back. This is mainly because I used it near a small patio with some Golden Barberry and Dwarf Zebra Grass (‘Nicky’). It usually is an excellent low maintenance plant that can be used for tough slopes or given enough space can be used as a shrubby groundcover. Mine are growing in a wet area (well, really moist) and that doesn’t seem to affect it. The fragrance of the foliage might turn some people off but I like it, as it is sharply pungent when the leaves are crushed. The fall color is great; I love the plants that give a mixture of the yellow, red and orange. The color is fairly persistent. I think I am going to remove the other plants growing with my Sumac and let it have the whole area.

I must admit to rushing here, as I have to go to work. This weather is just too good to stay home. The crew had their last day on Friday so I am on a solo run. I was all ready for winter but it just hasn’t shown up yet.

Tiger Eyes Staghorn Sumac
Rhus typhina ‘Bailtiger’
(roos) (ty-FEE-nuh)

I have been growing Sumac for a while now. The Cutleaf Staghorn ( Rhus typhina 'Laciniata') and Dwarf Fragrant Sumac (Rhus aromatica ‘Gro-Low’) are handsome plants. I think I have a little patch of another species at one of the gardens I take care of. They seem happy growing in rocky unimproved soil with little water.

I tried ‘Tiger Eyes’ when Bailey Nurseries introduced it in 2004. I forgot about it until I saw a couple of beautiful specimens at Wave Hill. I went and checked mine and found the deer had grazed them down to nothing. Well not everything as it was sprouting a couple of small leaves at the bottom. The color on this plant is amazing. I once said there are three things I like about gardening; color, color and color, and boy does this one have color. Using a plant like this at the end of a border adds three seasons of color. The fall color on Sumac is outstanding and I also find the furry ‘antlers’ of some winter interest. I will have to try a few more of these. It is too good of an accent plant to give up on. They will just have to be sited in a deer protected location.

The garden or cultivated types of Sumac should not be confused with Poison Sumac or the invasive types. Poison Sumac grows in moist areas and the only way I know to identify it is by its berries, which are a green and white and hang downwards.